Ductile cement-based spray-applied fire-resistive materials

Abstract

Purpose

Spray-applied fire-resistive materials (SFRMs) are the most commonly used passive fire protection for steel structure in the USA. However, they are often called into question because of their poor durability (cohesive and adhesive) performance. Being an inherently brittle material with low tensile strength, SFRM tends to dislodge and delaminate under extreme loads and service loads. Such loss of fire protection greatly endangers the steel structures, especially under multi-hazards like post-earthquake/impact fires. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new technology of a ductile cement-based SFRM, namely, spray-applied fire-resistive engineered cementitious composite (SFR-ECC) that overcomes the aforementioned problems and contributes toward enhanced fire safety of steel structures.

Design/methodology/approach

SFR-ECC has been developed as a durable alternative to conventional SFRM by adopting engineered cementitious composite (ECC) technology in the material design process. Various experimental studies have also been conducted to fully evaluate the performance of SFR-ECC.

Findings

It is found that SFR-ECC possesses much better durability performance under both static and high-rate loading compared to conventional SFRMs. With many unique properties, applications of SFR-ECC for pre-fabrication of passive fire protection are also found to be feasible.

Originality/value

This paper is a comprehensive introduction of the newly developed SFR-ECC. It summarizes the key properties of SFR-ECC and provides a useful guideline for further investigation and field application of SFR-ECC.

Citation

Zhang, Q. and Li, V.C. (2016), "Ductile cement-based spray-applied fire-resistive materials", Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 114-125. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSFE-06-2016-009